Rabbi, wife assaulted in Kenya robbery, reportedly called anti-Semitic slurs
Rabbi Shmuel Notik and his wife Chaya serve as Chabad emissaries in Nairobi; Chaya undergoes surgery
Cnaan Liphshiz was a Jewish World reporter at The Times of Israel
JTA — A rabbi and his wife were injured in Kenya during a violent assault at their Jewish community center and synagogue, which serves as their home, in what they said was a robbery featuring anti-Semitism.
Five men beat up Rabbi Shmuel Notik and his wife Chaya Tuesday night, stealing computers, passports, food and religious items from their center in Nairobi, the Ynet news site reported.
Chaya Notik was moderately injured, requiring surgery. The rabbi was lightly injured.
The robbers bound two yeshiva students who were present at the Jewish community center. They beat the rabbi after he tried to call police. The robbers beat the rabbi’s wife with sticks, threatening to kill her in her bedroom and hurling anti-Semitic insults at her, according to the report. She fled to the bathroom with her children and locked the door behind her, remaining there until police arrived, according to Ynet.
"איימו תוך אמירות אנטישמיות": שליחי חב"ד בקניה הותקפו בביתם • אבישי בן חיים עם הפרטים המלאים >> https://t.co/GzlVJHI5cT pic.twitter.com/rPo5CrBUqj
— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) April 24, 2019
Nairobi has one of the world’s highest crime rates.
Notik and his wife settled in Nairobi in 2014. Days after their arrival, he was mugged in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi when six men armed with knives intercepted him on a dark street.
Notik — a follower of the Chabad-Lubavitch stream of Judaism who had moved to Kenya to serve local Jews just days prior to that incident in 2014 — gave the assailants his prayer book and a lapel pin, along with his shofar, the ceremonial horn that Jews blow on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
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